A Moment of Silence Please...

My Janome 5700 "may" have stitched it's last stitch this week. She has been making a grinding kind of sound for the past few weeks. The repair guy said it sounded like a bearing was going out perhaps. But, last Saturday...she turned herself off without any warnings or strange sounds...and refused to turn back on. The repair guy said that sounds like a blown board...and that could cost several (as in 7-8) hundred dollars to fix. So, my nephew (Brady's dad) has her now to break-down and see if he can get her to start working again. Even though he is a trained high-voltage electrician...he is the family "electronics" fixit guy. He has worked on several of our televisions and computers that have seen better days...We shall see if he can resuscitate my little sewbaby or not. For now...I've pulled out my old trusty Pfaff 1469 which I purchased at the Post Exchange in Germany way back in 1983-5 when we were stationed overseas. It has been banged around in several military moves...but still has a pretty stitch. The presser foot lever doesn't work perfectly to lower...but I can push it down all the way with my finger...so that will have to do for now.  

  I'm gonna miss my Janome 5700 however...it was a workhorse...and the machine that I taught Aidan to sew on...with the help of several things to bring the foot-petal up to meet her short legs at the time. Hard to believe that she can use the petal flat on the floor now...time sure does fly!    So, a moment of silence please...for my little sewing pal...and all the other great sewing machines that we have had over the years that have been good partners in creativity. Her last task was to piece the four CQ blocks together that I'm still plugging along on. Finishing up the connecting seams and adding more beads, etc to the CQ 4-block wallhanging. Sewing on beads takes some time...But, I'm almost done..and hope to finish the block portion today. The borders will require some lace dying I'm thinking...but not sure yet about them. When the stitching is finished on the center blocks, I'll get some closeup photos for y'all. Also will allow me to test out a new camera gifted to me by my SIL...and hope to get clear close ups with it later on today or tomorrow morning when the last beads go on. So, more on that later...hope y'all are having a great day so far!
Edited to add: If you are looking for a sewing machine, you might be interested in this post from DoYouSew. about a "starter" machine.